My Top 10 Favorite (Non)Traditional Christmas Songs

I love Christmas music.  I truly do.  I am a sap for the old standards too.  'The Holiday Season' by Andy Williams is one of my favorites.  But having head these songs for over 40 years it doesn't take much to make me sick of them.  That is why every year I search out new Christmas music that will become a new favorite.  I want them to sound like Christmas...not just different.  They have to embody Christmas.  Below are my Top 10.  I hope that you will listen to these so much that they will make you sick one day!!!

1. My Chemical Romance / All I Want For Christmas Is You - I know that this Mariah Carey classic may be considered a classic by todays standards but My Chemical Romance rips it apart and puts it back together again.  Nothing like a little Christmas rage.  Watch out Santa.

2. Jenny O / Get Down For The Holidays - Most of this list is thanks to Target.  Yes...Target.  A few years back they used all original Christmas songs for a series of commercials and then offered up the free tracks for download.  They are new and fresh and this is one of them.  I can almost picture myself driving from house to house with Jenny O on this one. 

3. Best Coast & Waaves / Got Something For You - This new song has a classic feel with the sleigh bells and bells and harmonies.  You can feel the love between Bethany and Nathan during this track.  I love to read their banter on Twitter.

4. Guster / Tiny Tree Christmas - There is something about a Christmas song that makes you clap your hands and move your hips.  It's a happy feeling.  That is how Christmas should be.

5. Natalie Hemby / Perfect Gift - I love the feel of old country for Christmas.  It has a nostalgic feel.  Like warm cookies in your belly.  Now that I think of it I do not know anything else by Natalie Hemby.  I need to do my research.

6. Little Isidore / Party Hard - It doesn't have to be a classic to sound like a classic.  I can almost hear Dean Martin singing this song...just not as good.

7. Bryan Adams / Reggae Christmas - I know that I am not a Bryan Adams fan but how can you NOT like this song???  Especially when the video has Pee Wee Herman in dreadlocks.

8. Fall Out Boy / What's This? - I don't care if this is in a movie about Halloween, it's still about Christmas.  And Fall Out Boy take Danny Elfman's composition to a whole new level.

9. Harry Connick Jr. / (It Must've Been Ol') Santa Claus - This doesn't sound like something I would typically like, but I do.  It must have something to do with being a big kid at Christmas.  I always have been, I always will be.

10. Neon Trees / Wish List - Thank you free iTunes single of the week.  I am a sucker for anything poppy that I can sing along to.  This song is a perfect example.  Perhaps it doesn't fit the Christmas template but I don't really care.  I like the drum beat.

I purposefully left The Killers off of this playlist.  They release a new Christmas song every year.  That is worthy of a playlist all on its own.  I hope that this is a new playlist to fall in love with this Christmas.  Hopefully, I get a couple more years of it before the sound of these songs drive me crazy.

See you when the needle drops!

Fran

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